Even with two candidates — one a high-ranking officer on his force, another a police chief across the Wabash River in West Lafayette — already lining up to challenge him in a Republican primary 16 months away?

“Whatever people want to say about that, that’s their business,” Richard said this past week, at the midpoint of his first term as Tippecanoe County sheriff. “My focus, right now in January 2017, is on the operations of the jail. … I’m not going to take my time to share my personal thoughts on whoever has the desire to get involved in politics.”

That goes for his own plans, too. He said he’d wait until the start of 2018 to make any re-election announcements, rather than rise to the early bait of other candidates and what their challenges might imply about the work he and his department are doing.

“Listen, I’m the sheriff right now,” Richard said. “I’m not a politician.”

Maybe so.

But Richard sounded like a man fully aware of his surroundings in a week that saw a second challenger emerge and the county prosecutor express frustrations about communication with the sheriff’s office after problems surfaced about missing fingerprint records coming from the jail.

Richard sounded like a man ready for the months of rumblings coming — rumblings that already have started — about whether he’s up for a second term.

Primary contests in the sheriff’s election aren’t rare. Richard was part of the two most recent ones: In 1994, Richard finished fourth in a six-way race that Dave Murtaugh won, on his way to two terms as sheriff; and in 2014, Richard beat Dave Heath, a former two-term sheriff and two-term mayor of Lafayette. But there have been no primary challenges against a sitting sheriff in recent memory.

Not that Richard, a former Lafayette police officer, was backing away from the job he believes he’s done as the first sheriff to come from outside the county ranks in three decades.

“I wouldn’t change anything we’ve done so far,” Richard said.

To his point, Richard this past week ran off a two-page list of changes made during his first two years, including a switchover to SUVs for much of the patrol fleet, annual performance reviews for all sworn personnel, a five-year plan that asks for two additional deputies a year, a new contract to manage inmate health care — all of which he said he did while keeping costs under budget.

But even as Richard was explaining how the missing fingerprint problems happened — his staff blamed it on software problems with outdated equipment, which since has been replaced — he found himself answering other questions he’ll likely face when a primary actually happens.

Richard downplayed the fingerprint trouble. More bracing than the software glitch was the reaction from Prosecutor Pat Harrington. If Richard’s staff had given a heads up that they were having trouble last summer, Harrington said, the prosecutor’s staff wouldn’t have had to spend so much time helping to track down solutions today. Harrington’s criticism wasn’t particularly fiery — “The key to effective law enforcement is to keep everyone in the loop,” he told the J&C — but it was unusual. Like so many other parts of Greater Lafayette government, the law enforcement community tends to present a unified front. Small public criticisms speak volumes.

How about turnover in the sheriff’s office since Richard took office?

Richard put the number of civilian staff and deputies who have left in the past two years “in the low 40s.” That’s more than a quarter of an overall force of 155.

Richard said he couldn’t say why everyone left, though he believed some departed for better opportunities or for personal or family situations. As for anyone who left because they didn’t like changes he made, Richard was unapologetic.

Richard said he implemented a number of new policies for deputies: limiting them to their district assignments; instituting maximum speeds when responding to calls; establishing one-hour limits on dinner breaks; and allowing no more than two marked units make a stop in the same place to eat or take a break.

“I can’t speak for everybody,” said Capt. Brian Sterner, who supervises the patrol division. “There’s been stuff that’s been changed and mandated. … It’s either something you can live with or you can’t.”

Richard added: “OK, if they’re leaving because of the sheriff, well, what has the sheriff done that has made them leave? Unless you can tell me a specific thing that I’ve done that would make someone leave, I cannot address it.”

As for not being a politician? Well, that’s a stretch.

He was a Lafayette City Council member, elected as a Democrat in 1987. Midway through that four-year term, he switched party affiliations, setting up an unsuccessful run against Lafayette Mayor Jim Riehle. (That would be Riehle’s sixth and final term as mayor.) There was the unsuccessful run for sheriff in 1994, along with forays in township government.

This past week, Richard even batted down a rumor that he’d told people he was considering a run for Lafayette mayor in 2019.

“That is crazy,” Richard said. “I’m very supportive of (Mayor) Tony (Roswarski), and I want to see Tony there as long as he wants to do it.”

Richard might not see himself as a politician. But he knows the score. He’s where he is because he made a lifetime of contacts, whether as a D.A.R.E. officer assigned to visit Lafayette schools (a generation of voters know Officer Barry on a first name basis) or executive director of the Lyn Treece Boys and Girls Club (a full-time job he continues to hold along with his sheriff’s duties).

Heath, endorsed by the succession of three sheriffs who followed him, probably underestimated that in the 2014 primary.

Even Richard’s missteps bring waves of support.

This fall, Richard was ripped when he hung a plaque that renamed the jail’s lobby, honoring an eight-time drunken driver who had spent his time in custody keeping the floors spotless. Richard said he was just trying to build the jail trusty’s self-confidence. The plaque has since come down. But Richard’s supporters hailed the motivation, if not the plaque itself.

Richard insisted this past week he’s not talking about anything other than right now at the sheriff’s office. As for repeated questions about a re-election, well … he said he knows how reporters work, and he’s not going to bite.

He’s too busy to think about it. But if he did run again, he conceded his campaign game plan.

“I look at holding an office as substantial and important as the one of being sheriff of Tippecanoe County, it’s one that the community needs to look at as a lifetime of work in the community and the quality of work done throughout the community,” Richard said. “That’s what’s important to me — what I’ve done, who I am. I think that’s the most important part.”

He’s confident he’d pass.

“I’ve met and exceeded any and all expectations of being a sheriff,” Richard said.

Meanwhile, two candidates gear up to say they’re prepared to do better.

Bangert is a columnist with the Journal & Courier. Contact him at dbangert@jconline.com. Follow him on Twitter: @davebangert.